


Spooks Bits'n'Bobs

by ALC_Punk



Category: Spooks | MI-5
Genre: Angst, Character Study, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-08 18:36:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16434680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ALC_Punk/pseuds/ALC_Punk
Summary: A collection of Spooks ficlets, bits and pieces written over the years. This is Spooks, so there are at least a couple which reference canon-deaths.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I figure I'd start with the shippy one, and also note that it is not much of a canon departure (I mean, there's no HEA). 
> 
> So, back in the day, I used to write these multi-fandom ficlet conglomerates on a theme. And to get back into writing last year, I gave myself a "weddings that never happened" theme and then tried to work in the most unlikely weddings and pairings.
> 
> This one is Ros/Adam, which I shipped a lot (even though I also shipped Adam/Fiona, and Adam/the ambassador's wife).

"This isn't us, is it."

Ros doesn't even answer him as she tugs him past the church with its lovely bride in white and its fluttering bridesmaids in purple and its families clustering and laughing. There are flashes going off and children chasing each other round a be-ribboned and ballooned car just waiting to spirit the newly-christened husband and wife off to their new life together.

Feeling an odd smile crossing his lips, Adam grabs for her hand, tangling their fingers together and pulling her onward.

"No," she finally replies as she takes the lead once again (there is a suspect to follow, after all, even if Malcolm's on comms and Jo is lurking at the next check-point to switch tails). "It really isn't, is it."

They're not going to be the flowers and fidelity type, the couple that marries and stays together until the end. He has a son, he had a wife already. She's no longer got any faith at all. Together, they're the perfect spooks. Marriage isn't really a thing they'll ever do. Or want.

It's what he's still thinking twenty weeks later as she drags him into a bloody registry office.

Ruth and Zaf are their witnesses, and he tells himself it's not perfect (it is), and it won't last. Not in their profession.

(someday, Ruth will explain to his grave that he was always right in the end)


	2. Juliet - Ficlet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Juliet introspection, but I'm not sure I remember which episode it drops into. Set after the explosion but certainly before Juliet's swing to the dark side.

"Do you love Ruth, Harry?" And Juliet doesn't want to ask, doesn't want to see that tiny moment in his eyes where he considers that he is in love with Ruth ( _the spaniel_ was a cruel joke, but almost comforting). She doesn't want to really know the answer (it's not that she's in love with Harry--that was over long ago, and it was just a schoolgirl crush on danger, excitement and the establishment, anyway--but there is something about operational fidelity that requires that she know).

Or perhaps she's just lashing out in her distress, knowing that there is leeway now that she's a _cripple_. It's not pleasant to consider, but there it is.

Juliet tries not to lie to herself on her bad days.


	3. 8x3 - Perspectives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Character POV shifts for That Scene in 8x3. Character death warning totally applies here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this, god, I don't know how long ago. But a major impetus to it was the thought I had the Jo, like Adam, was chasing her death. I felt like Adam (especially after series 5) was not working to stay alive, he was working to find a death that would give him peace.
> 
> And I felt (and still feel) that he and Jo were very much alike in certain ways--and this was one of them. After Adam's death (Adam, who brought her into this life and made it exactly what she wanted), that Jo was sort of lost without mooring. By the time Ruth returns, I felt that she was beginning to chase her own death as he had his. 
> 
> I don't know why I went with second person, but it worked. I think.

You've been chasing this moment, ever since Boscard. Ever since Adam drove a car into a field and didn't walk away from it. _Adam thought you might not have a clear memory..._

You never tell anyone how unclear some memories are.

The adrenaline rush was always good before, but there was an edge to it, after that.

You remember once, making a joke of things to Ben. They expect you to die for your country _don't ask me how much I make, you don't want to know_. It was all a lark, then. Or you thought it was, until it was deadly serious.

Ben's blood had already been tacky when you found him.

There's only an instant, before the trigger finger reaches the detonation button. You're not wearing a vest.

Across from you, Ros's hands are steady. She's always been an excellent shot, and you know the risks of being where you are.

You nod and she fires.

And you think that this is why you came back to work. To make something of yourself, protect the people of England. You're an MI-5 officer, and you've always known that they don't live for long--Connie and Harry were exceptions (and Connie died in a bomb blast, anyway).

Stupidly, you look down. You think _there's a hole in my chest_ , and you can't quite work out where it's from.

Back up, and you're looking at Ros who... you don't think you've ever seen that look in Ros's eyes before, but you remember it in Adam's a time or two. You want to ask her why it doesn't hurt.

It's supposed to hurt, isn't it?

A perfect heart-shot.

You're still wondering why it doesn't hurt when your knees buckle and everything goes black.

* * *

There's an instant, just before your finger moves, that you think _Jo might be wearing a vest_. The thought is wrong, and you know it, even before the bullet passes through Finn's chest and into hers. She jerks a little, hands going slack as Finn slides to the floor. Jo's on her feet a little longer, looking down at the hole in her chest.

You tell yourself there was no other way.

You tell yourself, _Nina would never have fired_.

Both are true, in their own way.

You tell yourself that it's _nerves_ as you slide to the floor, almost as boneless as Jo.

Her sightless eyes stare at nothing, and your knees crack a little when they hit the concrete of the floor.

The smell of gunpowder tickles the back of your throat.


	4. Jo & Ros - Conversation in the Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jo and Ros stand on a bridge in the rain, it's what spooks do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was prompted by 'coffee in the rain' if my notes are correct. Not sure it ever got posted, but it apparently was for a promptathon hosted by pocky_slash; no relevant data in my notes for if this is a specific episode insert or not.

It's raining. It's always raining, these days (or possibly always, Jo's been too busy to think about keeping track of things like rain and sunshine)--especially when Harry's gone all quiet and angry, or Ros is standing about, looking stoic.

But then, it's Ros she looks to more as a barometer; she gauges the turn of the day by whether Ros looks like stone or like something liquid and changeable (ever since Ben, it's easiest to use Ros, to not-quite- _hide_ ).

Standing on the bridge, feeling the rain drip down inside her collar probably isn't good for her health, but it's better than being shot at. Jo appreciates the little things like that as she traces a design that isn't there upon the balustrade.

Heels click against wet pavements behind her, but that's normal for this time of day.

The smell of coffee precedes Ros, who doesn't lean against the rail as she holds out the paper cup. "Thought you could use this."

Jo doesn't answer for a moment, but she appreciates that Ros didn't bother with an umbrella, either. If the ice queen can handle the rain, Jo can, too. She rubs her nose against the back of her hand, then takes the cup.

The taste of the coffee is even better, and Jo closes her eyes and just basks for a moment. Her hands are the only warm thing about her.

"Malcolm's almost got the code cracked," Ros offers.

It occurs to Jo that Ros is feeling her way through this, too. She blinks against the rain ( _just the rain_ ) and nods. "It's Malcolm. Of course he is."

Silence, and the sound of other heels and boots behind them, and then Jo shifts, bumping up against Ros's shoulder. "I'd rather have had tea."

"Complaints department is Harry today," suggests Ros, and that slight smile is on her lips. The one that comes out for holidays, or moments when she remembers that there was once more to life than spying and death.

"He'll have me tarred and feathered for the idea."

"At least you'd be warm."

Jo smiles out over the Thames and hands the half-drunk coffee back. "I think my phone's about to ring. Malcolm's cracked it."

Neither of them is surprised when the distinctive sound of Jo's mobile shrills through the rain. No rest for the wicked, after all.


End file.
